Warhammer: Vermintide 2 News

The Chaos Wastes was released right before the summer, and you have been exploring these unpredictable lands ever since. In this dev blog, you can find out more about the next addition to Chaos Wastes: the Grudge Mark Update.

The Grudge Mark Update is free to all players and will be released on October 28th on all platforms together with Geheimnisnacht.


[h2]Let’s begin[/h2]
In Chaos Wastes you start out with a low power level and as you move through the expeditions you become increasingly powerful. With this update, we want to give you something to hit that is more resistant to the heroes’ ever-increasing power in the Wastes.

[h2]GRUDGE MARKS THE SPOT[/h2]
"With the End Times approaching, Okri's grown concerned that a number of long-held grudges might go unfulfilled. Accordingly, he's taken the unusual step of asking the Ubersreik Five to settle accounts (as drengbarazi, they're as near to being honourary dwarfs as makes no difference) for families wiped out by war."

The Grudge Marked enemies are not your everyday Chaos Spawn, Bile Troll, or Rat Ogre. Recognizable by the spears poking through their backs, a grudge-marked monster provides an extra challenge in the Wastes.



[h3]ATTRIBUTES CHANGE THE BATTLE[/h3]
The Grudge Marked monster receives a random set of attributes modifying their offensive and defensive behavior. Any hero wishing to survive should pay special attention to these attributes. There are 10 attributes total coming in this update, and we will reveal more about them leading up to the release.

The number of attributes applied depends on difficulty. A Grudge Marked monster can have a minimum amount of 0 attributes and a maximum of 3.

Within Chaos Wastes you will face a Grudge Marked monster at the end of an expedition in the arenas, and they also have a chance to spawn from Cursed Shrines.


[h3]NEW OKRI’S CHALLENGES & REWARDS[/h3]
Together with the Grudge Marked monsters, Okri is providing you with more challenges to complete with new rewards to be earned.

Each career will have a new set of challenges rewarding a new character skin color variation at completion. We are adding 60 new challenges and 15 new character skin color variations to unlock*. You can track the progress of these challenges in Okri’s Book from within the Keep.

*Owners of a Premium Career(s) will receive 4 extra challenges per career to unlock an extra skin color variation per owned career.

[h2]NEW PREMIUM COSMETICS[/h2]
New Premium Hats and Skins will be available for purchase in Lohner’s Emporium of Wonders.

This time we are adding new premium cosmetics to the following careers:

• Kruber - Huntsman
  
• Kerillian - Handmaiden
  
• Bardin - Slayer
  
• Sienna - Battle Wizard
  
• Victor - Zealot

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.



Well, they do say no good deed goes unpunished.

You remember my mate Rosalinde, who helped me get the keep a bit more handy for the purposes of everything we do around here? Used her mastery of Light Magic to shuffle the stones around a bit? Ringing any bells?

Well, part of the agreement for her doing that was that once we’d actually nailed down something approaching a safe route up to the Citadel of Eternity, she’d be welcome to take a look for herself. Not out of any spiritual necessity, I hasten to add. Rosalinde’s always been of the view that she’ll leave the gods alone if they’ll do the same to her, and so far it seems to have worked out quite nicely. Probably works out better for the gods, truth be told. Rosalinde’s the sort of person who redefines the word ‘clumsy’ and I’d imagine granting her any kind of divine protection is a larger job of work than most of our slacker gods are interested in taking on.

And wouldn’t you know it? The Rosalinde factor has struck once more. Happily, it wasn’t up in the Citadel itself. No, the Five managed to keep the Pactsworn off her back while she took her notes and made her sketches – Rosalinde does love her sketching – and everyone came back in one piece.

(Interestingly enough, Rosalinde didn’t hear a peep out of the gods at the pilgrimage’s end. Not sure what that means. Might just be that they’re not interested in speaking to anyone who isn’t prepared to listen, but I might give it a ponder.)

No, the trouble started upon Rosalinde’s return. Decided to try out some of the Citadel of Eternity’s architectural tricks in her own little mansions. I mean, I say “little” but it’s a good sight larger than this here tower. The advantages of reduced labour costs, I suppose. Anyway, things got a bit out of hand. I did warn her that techniques from the magic-suffused wastes might not work out quite how she expected in the considerably more mundane municipalities. And so it proved.

No sooner was the first spell completed than the whole manor twisted in on itself like Bretonnian knotbread. Corridors and rooms look alright from the inside, but somehow loop back around on themselves when you try to make any progress out. She’s now got a kitchen that somehow manages to fill seven rooms and one room all at the same time. And as for getting out? Well, I was the lucky one. Rosalinde gave me a big old magical shove out of the door just as she realised things were going wrong. Haven’t seen her since.

I only know what I know because her and Olesya have been nattering over the Winds of Magic. Olesya, of course, is about as sympathetic as usual – which is to say not at all – but I suppose we’d better add “help Rosalinde escape the prison of her own hubris” to our list of things to do. Morality aside, a good architect is hard to find, and a good architect who owes you a significant favour is a very good person to know indeed.

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.



It’s fair to say that Kerillian hasn’t been that chatty of late, even by her low standards, so it was something of a surprise when she stole into the main hall last night and made a play of warming herself by the fire. A clear invitation for a bit of a natter, if ever there was one.

I’m not saying she opened up all at once. No. Like always, she had an array of back-handed compliments and not-quite-threats ready and levelled, but you don’t last long in a life like mine without nurturing a thick skin, oh no. And humanitarian that I am (Olesya calls it ‘prying’, but she’s one to talk) I wasn’t about to leave Kerillian to whatever was eating her up. Last time I did that…? Well, let’s just say Saltzpyre nearly lost his eye the next day, following his own attempt at enquiry. He’s half-blind in more ways than one, which ain’t handy when it comes to reading the signs. Not sure who landed the first blow, but Sienna and Kruber had to separate them sharpish.

Anyway, after a while, Kerillian stopped her ‘leave me to be morose in peace’ act, and started talking. 

Seems one of the goddesses she upped and dedicated herself to in the summer was one Ereth Khial. The Pale Queen, she’s called, and with good reason, what with her taking up residence in a black pit full of stolen elf-souls. Stolen by her, in fact, which ain’t exactly putting rosy complexion on this particular goddess’ character. Seems the elves think so too, because only the mad or desperate even consider acknowledging the Pale Queen, much less offer her worship. That Kerillian’s done what she has makes her mad, desperate, or both. 

The way Kerillian tells it, she could live with that. Her fear comes from the possibility she might well have damned herself into the bargain. You see, Ereth Khial doesn’t intend to keep lurking in the darkness forever. She had herself a bit of a lover’s tiff with Asuryan - the elven creator god - back beyond the dawn of time. Well, I say ‘tiff’. Sounds much more like a determined refusal to heed the word ‘no’ on her part, but the end result’s much the same. 

Whoever’s at fault, the Pale Queen’s nurturing something of a grudge, and means to drown the world in death - assuming the Chaos Gods don’t get there first. As for Kerillian? She’s been dreaming of herself at the head of a dark host, bat-winged spirits rushing around her like the wind. Seems firelight’s the only thing that keeps those dreams at bay, which makes me wonder if they’re not so much prophecy, as a message from the Pale Queen, warning of a debt coming due.

I left Kerillian to it after that. She’d clammed up, and me? Well… I slept with a lantern burning in the corner of the room last night and started awake at every rattle of the window.

Think I’ll make sure we’ve got plenty of firewood in the stores.

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.



Dear me, it’s got a bit funny outside. Weather just doesn’t know what it’s doing. Blazing hot one moment, pouring with rain the next. Olesya reckons it’s something to do with our little forays into the north - that we’ve upset the natural order of things. Well, insofar as there is any kind of natural order to be had wherever the Dark Gods’ beady little eyes latch onto the landscape. Natural ain’t exactly what they’re known for, if you catch my drift?
But much as I hate to admit it, perhaps the old baggage has got a point. Everything was just fine and dandy until Bardin tried to bring back some of those weapons from the Pilgrim’s Trail. Didn’t work, of course. No, the blessed things evaporated into memory as soon as they were out of the Bridge of Shadows. Another reminder that these pilgrimages are enchanted right up the wazoo. Whatever a wazoo is. I asked Catrinne, and she gave me a funnier look than normal.

Anyway, point is that all this meteorological disturbance kicked in just after. Could be coincidence, I’ll grant you, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my long life it’s that there’s no such thing as coincidence, just a series of jokes where you haven’t yet got the punchline. Bardin broke the rules of the pilgrimage, and now we’re all paying the price.

I just hope whatever power Bardin’s offended gets bored and sets things right before too much longer. The torrential rain’s made the mountain passes damn near unnavigable, and that’s not good for the supply situation. Worse than that, when the weather brightens, Markus has taken to sunbathing in the nuddy atop the tower. That’s not doing a lot for morale, for one reason or another. Some sights should not be seen by man or beast.

Bah. Why am I wittering on so? Never used to complain like back when I was sellswording. You took your lumps during the day, and were grateful to see the fall of night. Could be I’m getting soft, but I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something wicked coming this way - something that’ll make a spot of rain and Kruber’s unbridled glory seem like a pleasant interlude.

One thing’s for certain: I need to have a word with that sticky-fingered dwarf. We don’t need to go borrowing more trouble.

I don’t suppose we can borrow some peace and quiet? That’d be nice.

An absent-minded man of mysteries, Franz Lohner relies on his bulging journal to keep track of occurrences, intrigues and arguments around Taal's Horn Keep. Sometimes his notes are even useful, believe it or not. The Franz Lohner Chronicles are extracts from that journal.



Bardin’s been back in the workshop again. How can I tell? Well, apart from all manner of clanking and hammering at all hours – not exactly conducive to me getting some much-needed beauty sleep – the mountainside’s increasingly strewn with all manner of failed experiments.

Of course, Bardin being Bardin, must of them are weapons, refinements on various designs he’s accumulated over the years. There are handguns, pistols, cog hammers – you know, the usual stuff – but there are also plenty of oddities and all. A self-loading longbow he whipped up for Kerillian. Went down like a lead airship, it did. An axe with some kind of whirring, mechanical teeth, which I think Saltzpyre would have taken to, were it not for the face it kept breaking down and was easily twice the weight of a normal one.

What gets me is when the designs get a little more, shall we say “unusual”? That mechanical pigeon, for example. No idea how Bardin cobbled the thing together, or why, much less how he trained it to drop those bombs while on the wing. Says he was inspired by something the Imperial engineering school whipped up, and that much is true enough. Only the Altdorf engineers use flesh and blood pigeons, rather than cog and steam. Unnatural, is what it is. And for what it’s worth, the flesh and blood ones are rather brighter than whatever horror Bardin hammered together. His just flies in circles, and unerringly drops payloads of rotten fruit on Kruber, regardless of the target it’s been given.

Hang on. Maybe Kruber’s the real target, and everything else is just an excuse? Yeah, I can see that being the case. Funny sense of humour, that dwarf.

Anyway, I can see I’m going to have to have a word. The rest of us need a bit of shuteye every now and then. More than that, Bardin’s been muttering about a much larger project. Won’t say what, of course, secrecy’s like breathing to a dwarf, but I think I’d like to put a stop to it before he cobbles together some cog-driven dragon, or tries to staple bloody great legs to the keep. I mean, it’ll be a spectacle for sure, but it’s one I’d rather watch from a distance and with a solid forty winks behind me, if you know what I mean?